The Carlsbad Village Association is pleased to announce Flicks at the Fountain 2018, a series of weekly family-fun films that show behind the Village’s prominent fountain on the corner of State Street and Grand Avenue. Each summer, the free movies make their big screen debut on the Thursday following 4th of July (July 5, 2018) and continue each Thursday evening at dusk until the second Thursday in August.

The City of Carlsbad is holding a workshop on Thursday, June 7, from 6 – 8 p.m. at Buena Vista Elementary School to find out what neighbors would like to see in a new park being planned at the site of the former Buena Vista Reservoir. And as we all know, the one thing every new park in Carlsbad should always have is some kind of skateboarding facility. Nothing big, just a nice little corner with some shapes to skate that won’t bother anyone and this is your chance to let the City of Carlsbad know that some skate able terrain would be perfect for this location (especially seeing as the reservoir was home to many historic moments in skateboarding.)

If you can’t make the workshop? No problem. You can give input about the need for a new skate park in Carlsbad through the online survey which will be available beginning Friday, June 8 at www.carlsbadca.gov/input.

The Carlsbad Music Festival is celebrating its 15th anniversary during its annual weekend festival set for August 24-26, 2018. In recognition of this milestone, the Sahm Family Foundation has awarded the Festival a $40,000 grant including $20,000 of matching funds for new and increased donations as a means to encourage community support of the festival for years to come. This is the single largest source of funding in the Festival’s history.

“This grant from the Sahm Foundation is a transformative moment for our organization. It provides a tremendous opportunity to grow our organization’s community of support to ensure the Festival’s sustainability and longevity. It is an honor to have such incredibly generous funding for our community of musicians and music lovers that gather every year to celebrate music with open minds and ears. I’m thrilled to share another year of adventurous music by the beach in August and look forward to 15 years more.”

This is great news! For more information visit CarlsbadMusicFestival.org. For the official word from the Carlsbad Music Festival, please follow the jump.

A staff member at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Carlsbad planned a very special surprise for Club CEO Brad Holland … the basketball court at the Village Clubhouse now bears his name!

“The floor had water damage, and needed to be completely replaced,” said Curtis Nieder, the Club’s Transportation and Facilities Coordinator. “I thought it would be cool to honor Brad for his excellent leadership and dedication to our organization. We are so fortunate to have Brad as our CEO. Not only is he an excellent leader, but he is a terrific person as well and I have much love and respect for him.”

The Club’s Executive Committee immediately embraced the idea as well, and gave the green light. Curtis, Club staff, and board members revealed the court to Brad in late May. For the official word from the Clubs, please follow the jump.

On Sunday, May 6, 2018 the streets of downtown Carlsbad will be transformed into a walking plaza packed with all your friends and neighbors along with booths from 800 vendors as part of the The Carlsbad Village Faire.

The Carlsbad Village Faire – the largest one-day street fair in the nation – will take place from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Sunday, May 6. The fair stretches 14 blocks. Grand Avenue from Carlsbad Boulevard to Jefferson Street, and all of the cross streets in between, will be closed for the event. Each year, the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce hosts the fair in May and November. Now in its 44th year, the free event has grown to be so popular that it not only continually attracts people from all over Southern California, but also from other states.

We used to visit the Carlsbad street faire every year. To see what Carlsbad Village Faire looked like nearly a decade ago, click here for 2011 or here or 2009. For the official details from the Carlsbad Village Association, please follow the jump.

This week Legoland, California is hosting media receptions for the opening of the newest addition to the park — the Castle Hotel at Legoland. The official opening will be on Friday, April 27, 2018, but Merlin Entertainment’s isn’t wasting any time introducing Legoland’s latest attempt at keeping visitors on-property for the duration of their stays (so Merlin doesn’t lose any vacation dollars to locally owned Carlsbad businesses).

The new hotel doubles Legoland’s onsite lodging bringing the park’s room total to 500. Just think, back in 2009 Legoland had to convince the Carlsbad City Council to “change a planning document” to get their first hotel approved. Guess, those changes are working out pretty well now.

The three-story, 250-room hotel immerses guests into a creative LEGO® world and every room is fully themed to create a castle fantasy. Guests can choose from three different room themes: Royal Princess, Knights and Dragons and Magic Wizard. Upon entering the LEGOLAND Castle Hotel, guests will first step into a Grand Hall where they are met by a LEGO wizard before taking a magical levitating lift (elevator) that will take them to one of three different floors to continue their adventure.

With a place like this to stay, and eat, and sleep, and shop, why would anyone want to leave? Exactly.

For years the Village of Carlsbad had a reputation for having a slew of Italian and Mexican restaurants and not much else. Thankfully this is no longer the case. The Village is now home to a great array of dining choices and while we’re not big on restaurant reviewing here at Carlsbadistan, there is one spot that we’ve been loving lately and that is Taste Of The Himalayas.

Hiding downstairs and nearly invisible from the parking lot at the Village Faire, Taste of the Himalayas has some of the most delicious Indian food we’ve had in San Diego. Stepping into the restaurant is like leaving Carlsbad and traveling to another country with its own colors, sounds, scents, flavors, and moods. Without giving too much away, we recommend you check it out if you haven’t, and if you have, then you know exactly what we’re talking about.

Taste of the Himalayas is open daily for lunch and dinner. For address and directions, click here. For more info, click the link.

Preview performances of the New Village Arts Theatre production of the hit play Men On Boats begin Friday, March 21, 2018. If you’d like to make sure you have a seat you can reserve it now for $25 or just pay what you can.

This fantastical comedy recreates John Wesley Powell’s ten-man 1869 exploratory expedition into the Grand Canyon with one twist: all of the roles are played by women. The production will be directed by Melissa Coleman-Reed (who directed NVA’s HAVING OUR SAY for Season Sixteen), featuring Kristianne Kurner as John Wesley Powell, and showcasing a diverse group of San Diego’s finest female actors.

We hear it will be well worth your while. For more info, please click the link.

Marklyn Retzer, a Carlsbad, California based singer, songwriter (and surfer) has released a collection of new songs titled, Dandelion Tattoo. The five track EP features songs that range from the uplifting and affirming, gospel tinged vibe of Fly Free, to heart filling pop love songs like She Calls Me Love, to light hearted metaphorical reflections on love and loss in the title track. The EP, produced by San Diego’s Ben Moore features Matt Lynott on drums, Chris Swann on bass, and backing vocals by Lacy Younger and Krista Richards.

Marklyn will be hosting a CD release party/show from 5:30 to 8:30 PM on March 24, 2018 at The Pour House in Oceaside. Here are the details from Marklyn:

I’m playing with my trio featuring Rhythm Rose Turner on drums and vocals, and Chris Swann on bass. I’ll have special guests stopping by to play some of their songs or to jam with me including Nina Francis, Savannah Philyaw, Sarah Rogo, Dave Boodah, and others to be added. This will be a fun night of music and friendship. CDs will be available for purchase for those of us who like a physical thing of music to hold.

While growing up with a family friend that was diagnosed with autism, Ethan Hope saw first hand the hardships his friend went through on a daily basis.

Ethan decided he wanted to do something to help other kids on the spectrum. “My baseball coach, Butch Smith, would always tell us to be grateful for what we have in life, and to not take things for granted,” says Ethan. “There are so many kids with disorders like autism that have the desire to do things that typically developing kids do, and I decided to do something to help them out.”

Now a sophomore at Sage Creek High, Ethan formed “Bobcat Buddies,” a club whose primary purpose is to provide teenagers who have autism with fun sports-related events in an environment where they can learn, grow, and interact with others.